[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 466 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 466

 Urging the Government of India to conduct a thorough and transparent 
     investigation of the scope of abusive child labor in circuses 
throughout India and to pursue immediate and effective remedies to end 
 such abuse, and to provide immediate and continuous police protection 
to secure the personal safety of Kailash Satyarthi, his family, and his 
    colleagues in the South Asian Coalition Against Child Servitude.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 24, 2004

 Mr. Holt (for himself, Mr. Wolf, Mr. George Miller of California, and 
 Mr. Lantos) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
          referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
 Urging the Government of India to conduct a thorough and transparent 
     investigation of the scope of abusive child labor in circuses 
throughout India and to pursue immediate and effective remedies to end 
 such abuse, and to provide immediate and continuous police protection 
to secure the personal safety of Kailash Satyarthi, his family, and his 
    colleagues in the South Asian Coalition Against Child Servitude.

Whereas Kailash Satyarthi, his family, and his colleagues in the South Asian 
        Coalition Against Child Servitude (SACCS) have rescued tens of thousands 
        of defenseless children from slavery and other manifestations of the 
        worst forms of child labor around the world;
Whereas Kailash Satyarthi is widely respected around the world for his 
        extraordinary work as Chairperson of the Global March Against Child 
        Labor, which prompted unanimous adoption by the International Labor 
        Organization in 1999 of Convention 182 on the Elimination of the Worst 
        Forms of Child Labor and its subsequent ratification by 150 countries at 
        a record-setting pace, including its ratification by the United States 
        in 1999;
Whereas Kailash Satyarthi is one of the founders and leaders of the Global 
        Campaign for Universal Access to Basic Education, the mission of which 
        is to ensure that by 2015 all children in the world receive a basic 
        education;
Whereas the courageous and innovative work of Kailash Satyarthi has secured the 
        release of countless children on every continent from the scourge of 
        abusive child labor during the past twenty years, has inspired both the 
        powerful and the powerless to fight anew against abusive child labor, 
        and has empowered more children to reach their fullest human potential 
        and realize more of their dreams;
Whereas Kailash Satyarthi, his son, and his SACCS colleagues were brutally 
        attacked on June 15, 2004, when they were leading a group of local 
        activists and parents to rescue Nepalese children trafficked and trapped 
        in bondage with the Great Roman Circus camping at Colonelganj town in 
        the Gonda District of the Province of Uttar Pradesh in India;
Whereas, according to eyewitness accounts and media reports on major news 
        channels in India, Kailash Satyarthi and his rescue team were attacked 
        with guns, knives, and other weapons and they sustained serious head and 
        bodily injuries before barely escaping their assailants and leaving 
        behind the Nepalese children trapped in the Great Roman Circus;
Whereas the local civil and police authorities in the Gonda District of Uttar 
        Pradesh did nothing to prevent this brutal attack and there is mounting 
        evidence of their complicity in it, in flagrant contradiction of the 
        improving national efforts by the Government of India to redress the 
        problems and suffering associated with at least 50,000,000 child 
        laborers in India;
Whereas the defenseless children that Kailash Satyarthi and his colleagues tried 
        to rescue through nonviolent means are still being held captive by the 
        owners and operators of the Great Roman Circus; and
Whereas Kailash Satyarthi began an indefinite fast on June 18, 2004, outside the 
        halls of the provincial government of Uttar Pradesh to demand the 
        immediate and unconditional release of all captive children in the Great 
        Roman Circus, the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for 
        holding the children against their will, and a thorough governmental 
        investigation into the employment and conditions of the children working 
        in all of the circuses in India: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That Congress--
            (1) urges the Government of India, the provincial 
        government in Uttar Pradesh, and the local government in the 
        Gonda District to take immediate action to secure the 
        unconditional release of the children being held by the owners 
        and operators of the Great Roman Circus;
            (2) urges the Government of India, the provincial 
        government of Uttar Pradesh, and the local government in Gonda 
        District to provide immediate and continuous police protection 
        to secure the personal safety of Kailash Satyarthi, his family, 
        and his colleagues in the South Asian Coalition Against Child 
        Servitude who were brutally attacked on June 15, 2004, and to 
        prevent any future attacks;
            (3) urges the Government of India and the provincial 
        government of Uttar Pradesh to fully investigate the June 15, 
        2004, attack on Kailash Satyarthi, his son, and his colleagues 
        and to arrest and prosecute to the fullest extent of all 
        applicable laws those individuals who ordered and participated 
        in the attack; and
            (4) urges the Government of India to conduct a thorough and 
        transparent investigation of the scope of abusive child labor 
        in circuses throughout India and to pursue immediate and 
        effective remedies to end such abuse.
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